Borders and Shading

Tips, Tricks, and Answers

The following articles are available for the 'Borders and Shading' topic. Click the article's title (shown in bold) to see the associated article.

Adding a Drop Shadow to a Text BoxDrop shadows add a nice touch to text boxes, making it seem like they are hovering above the page. Here's the simple steps you need in order to add a drop shadow to your text boxes.

Adding Borders around ParagraphsWant to draw attention to a particular paragraph? A great way to do it is with a border. Word allows you to easily add borders, as described in this tip. You can add a pre-defined border or a custom one; it is up to you.

Adding Borders to ParagraphsWord allows you to quickly and easily add different types of borders to your paragraphs. Borders, background shading, and indentation can highlight information by visually separating it from the rest of the body text.

Adding Drop-Shadows to ParagraphsDrop shadows are a style of paragraph border used to enhance the visual impact of a paragraph. They are also a great way to make sure your text really pops off the page.

Basing Headers and Footers on the Previous SectionWord treats the headers and footers in a document independently, based on the section in which they appear. This means that the headers and footers in one section can be different from those in the previous section—or you can instruct Word to continue the headers and footers from the previous section. This tip examines some of the interactions that these settings can cause within a document.

Borders on Multiple Paragraphs with Differing IndentsWhen you place a border around a paragraph, the position of that border is determined, partially, by the indent with which the paragraph is formatted. If you have multiple paragraphs with borders and those paragraphs have different indents, then that can play havoc with your borders.

Changing Paragraph BordersWord allows you to easily add borders to a paragraph of text. If you want, you can even change each side of the border to be different from the other sites. This tip shows how this is done.

Chopped Off Page BordersTired of your page borders not printing out as you expect? The problem could be due to any number of settings or conditions. Here's the things you can check out.

Controlling Where a Full-page Border is PrintedWhen you add full-page borders to your document, you may be bothered to find out that one or more sides of the border don't actually appear on the printout. If this happens to you, then you can apply the techniques in this tip to make sure that the border prints as desired.

Creating a Full-Page BorderBorders are easy to add around text or entire paragraphs. It may be surprising to you to learn that Word can just as easily place borders around entire pages. This tip explains how you can add this touch.

Deleting Paragraph BordersGot a document that has a border around some paragraphs? Here's how you can get rid of the border in the fastest way possible.

Drop Shadows for TablesWhen adding borders and shading to a document's elements, Word allows you to quickly add drop shadows to paragraphs, text boxes, and other objects. What you cannot easily do is to add a drop-shadow to a table. This tip explains different ways you can still achieve the desired results.

Extra Shaded LinesPut a page break at the beginning of a shaded paragraph and you may be surprised at what you get on your printout. This tip examines the problem of extra shaded lines at the bottom of a printed page and what you can do to get rid of them.

Non-printing Page BordersWith your page border in place, you might be surprised if you don't see one side of the border (or all sides) print out with your document. Here's the reason for the missing border sides and what you can do about it.

Removing Automatic LinesType a few dashes, underscores, or equal signs, and you could end up with a full-width line in your document. This is normal behavior for Word, but it may not be the behavior you want. This tip explains why you get these types of lines and how you can get rid of them.

Removing the Box from a Text BoxInsert a text box, and it is automatically formatted to have a border around it. Getting rid of the border is easy, if you follow the steps in this tip.

Setting the Distance between Text and BordersAdd a border around a piece of text (such as a paragraph), and Word makes some assumptions about the placement of that border relative to the text. Here's how to adjust the distance between text and any borders you may add.

The Line that Won't Go AwayHave you ever had a line appear on your document that you can't seem to get rid of? It could be due to a built-in line-generating feature in Word. This tip explains the feature, shows how to control it, and finally discloses how to get rid of those bothersome lines in your document.

Understanding Page Border ArtAdd some artwork around the border of your printed page, and you may not know where that artwork comes from. You may also want to add your own graphics to be used as page borders. Because Word uses a proprietary format for this type of graphic, adding your own artwork may not be possible.

Using Text As a Page BorderWord allows you to add page borders to a document, but you might find the options in this area too limiting. What if you want to create your own page borders or use text as a page border? This tip explains how you can accomplish your designs.